Interesting stories, events and random musings from Captain Barry King about windjammer cruises aboard the historic schooner Mary Day of Camden, Maine.

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Good morning everyone. What a beautiful stretch of weather we are enjoying here in the Great State of Maine. We are out and about exploring the coast again this week with Maine Master Naturalist Erika Rhile and Photography and Web-Guru JimDugan.com. But I am getting ahead of myself.

As many of you know last week was our annual Beers of the Maine Coast Cruise. Last week was a hoot but not in the way many of you might imagine. No, it was not a drunk-fest. We really did learn to savor and appreciate the many complexities and nuances of beer. Whoda thunk it? Right?

Our human taste buds, as it turns out, allow us to enjoy bitter and sweet, salty and sour. But have you heard of umami? Deliciousness is the best translation of this Japanese term that has been around for longer than we westerners have acknowledged. Someone back in 2000 figured out that umami is an actual savory genetic taste recognized by a particular receptor in our taste buds. I like this word umami. What a nice way to describe beer or anything else for that matter. Folks may not appreciate a beer that is too sweet or too bitter but everyone found at least one of the 45 beers we sampled to have deliciousness. I was shocked how much I enjoyed fermented cider, a beverage I had written off long ago.

Cider is not a beer of course but the point is that umami is more than just a taste. Deliciousness is a feeling as well. I like to use the word delicious when describing good naps. Or anything else that brings me the warm fuzzy feelings of relaxation. What tastes of umami for you?

Good morning everyone.This image caught my eye in the sunset last evening as we lay at anchor in Northeast Harbor. For those of you who have not had a chance to travel here let’s just say that folks here are living large in their summer homes. By the way that means they have winter homes too. Maybe they even have spring and autumn homes. That’s OK but for those of us sitting aboard the schooner last evening watching guillemots dive and crows chasing bald eagles in the sunset we were witnessing a beautiful world while most shoreside estates stood empty. Richness was ours to enjoy. But before I start getting cynical about folks I don’t even know (some of whom made Acadia National Park possible) I just want to say “thank you.” I am grateful for this beautiful place we call home and all of you folks who have sacrificed to allow us to enjoy the simple riches. Relaxing at sunset, sailing the coast of Maine, astounding views of Acadia National Park rising from the ocean, enjoying stories shared by folks who were strangers three days ago and now share a story that is still unfolding. Thank you one and all.

Good morning everyone. We are off and running for Mary Day’s 53rd season. Though not without a few bumps and bruises the crew is beginning to see what all that hard work was about during April and May. Mary Day herself is just beautiful. The simplicity, complexity and symmetry of the rigging is a wonder to behold.

I know I just used the words complexity and simplicity side by each but they both hold true. There is a complex physics behind the connections between each and every string and wire. There is a simplicity in the final result which allows 4 (or sometimes fewer) people to pass the sails from one tack to another. I believe it was Buckminster Fuller, designer of the geodesic dome and a Maine island rusticator, who coined the term “synergy,” the idea that the individual parts create a much larger whole.

The same holds true for our beautiful guests. A complex group of human beings come together every week and by trip’s end are one community bound by the strength of their unique experience. The connections made share that same unique quality and can never be replicated in quite the same way. Like the evolution of the schooner rig the basic simplicity of the experience doesn’t change but the synergistic result is inspiring. Remove any piece of rigging and the experience changes completely. Enough philosophical ramblings for one blog. Get out there and try to recognize for yourself the rigging that holds your life together. Try to notice, without judgement, and imagine how the connections keep you stayed allowing you to sail smoothly through life. Be the schooner!

Good morning everyone. Today being the vernal equinox, spring is here and so with it the rising hope of warmer weather and the rising sap in the trees. Knowing that winter has officially passed most folks look for flowers. Our crocuses (is it croci??) are still under a few feet of snow. It is time to tap and time to get the sap boiler up and running. There is still plenty of snow in the woods and around around our house where we live in the woods. The driveway is ankle deep in mud ,the songbirds are showing up at the feeder, ole man porky pine has taken up residence in one of the kids climbing trees and the sap is flowing. Maine Maple Syrup weekend is just a few days away!

At a ratio of 40 gallons of sap to1gallon of syrup our red maples in dooryard produce what we fondly call “liquid gold”. This year’s fuel for the sap boiler will be free range, organic pine and hemlock limbs taken down for us during the ice storm at Christmas. The real wood-fired professionals use hardwoods such as maple, oak, beech and birch cut, split and stacked a year or so ago.

Another tradition we have here is pancake Sunday. Sawyer wanted to share with all you one of his favorite recipes.

Cut the butter into 3 equal parts. Melt two of the pieces in a pan and save the third part for cooking the pancakes. Mix in a bowl the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Mash the banana in a different bowl. Add the milk, eggs and vanilla to the banana. Then mix the dry mix to the banana mix. Batter should be a little lumpy. Spoon batter on griddle and cook until a few holes form on top of each pancake and flip. They should rise a little and turn golden brown. Serve hot with warm syrup. Enjoy!

Good morning everyone. Apple Topped Gingerbread Cake with Maple Cream is a seasonal favorite that Jen found somewhere along the path of life. It is our family’s taste of the holiday season. It certainly warms our hearts as much as it does our tummies and is rich with memories of holidays past. With the winter solstice upon us this cake also forms a bridge between the seasons from autumn to spring with its appealing combination of fall apples and spring maple syrup. The apples keep this cake moist. As to what type of apple to use…well, that is a debate for the ages. Jen prefers a Macintosh but admits that apples are such a personal preference that she just as soon steer clear of telling anyone which variety to use for this particular recipe. I prefer a sweet-tart variety like a Northern Spy or, believe it or not, a Macoun which is usually reserved as a hand-apple. Maybe a pippin? Depending on where you live local varieties will dictate what is freshest. I steer away from the sweetness of the Delicious varieties. This is just my personal preference so for you highly opinionated apple afficianados out there…..relax.

Mix all together. Pour on top of apple mixture. Bake 35-45 minutes at 350′. Cool for 10 minutes. Invert onto a serving plate and serve topped with maple cream. Best served warm!

Maple cream is very easy. Mix 1 cup of whipped cream with 1/4 cup of maple syrup. As Jen would tell you, the maple cream is divine and so simple you might be tempted to skip it. But don’t do that! Don’t worry about calories. The maple syrup balances out any calories that might be found in the whipped cream.

Have a great solstice and enjoy this holiday recipe. Let us know how it comes out and give us your opinion on your favorite variety of apple. Be well. Do good.

Good morning everyone. Hope you folks enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday surrounded by friends and family. Some of you folks lucky enough to have sailed with us during our Seamanship and Sail Training course several years ago may remember Steve Stone, filmmaker extraordinaire. Steve spent several days interviewing guests and documenting the process through which students become working crew. Though it doesn’t appear in this video Steve even documented how to sail a schooner backwards…parallel parking, if you will. I can’t wait to see that footage. At any rate, here it is, the finished product:The Schooner Mary Day, An Evolutionary Remembrance.

If you have never seen it, OffCenterHarbor.com is a membership website that brings you inside the world of classic boats. Their growing collection of 140+ videos give you rare access to the leading craftspeople who build, restore and sail these wonderful boats. Though the link above gives you free trial access to their website this is a subscription based service so don’t expect to get all this talent and hard work for free. It is well worth the price of admission. I can’t speak highly enough about the quality of the work these folks produce and guarantee the token subscription pales in comparison to all the hard work and years of experience these highly revered professionals bring to Off Center Harbor.

Good morning everyone. As you can see we have a heavily favored image. But before we get to that Jen and I want to thank you all for your passionate involvement. I don’t think we have ever had as much feedback on anything we have ever put out there. And personally I was amazed at how many old friends contacted us. What all of that means is a mystery to me but we are very grateful for all the wonderful insights.

Drum roll please: With 18% of the votes cast we have #3 as our third place winner. With 24% of the vote, #1 is the silver medalist. And our grand champion with 68% of the vote, #2 was clearly the favorite with comments like: “out-of -the-box”, “fun”, “even the dogs are smiling”, “!!!!!” and so many more. We also received plenty of sage advice to perhaps use a combination. We have taken that advice to heart and will actually be using a combination 1 and 2. The lobster buoy in 1 needs to be toned down as several of you mentioned but hey, we are not afraid to use Photoshop. Once again, thank you for all of your wisdom and insights and the excitement you folks generated around our windjammer family picture.

Have a great day. Be well. Do good.

P.S.

Richard, I feel the same way about the Portuguese fisherman’s sweater. Jen knit that for me when we were back in graduate school oh so many years ago and the warmth it brings is well beyond its insulation value.

Good morning everyone. We are looking for your opinions. Presented in no particular order are 3 images created by our friend Marti Stone. Jen and I narrowed down a field of 100 images to these 3 and we need to go to press with our brochure in the very near future. So which image do you like best? Stoic, fun, laid back, the coast of Maine? These are a few of the words that may come to mind but we aren’t the ones looking at the brochure trying to decide which windjammer to sail on. Some of you have real life experience with marketing stuff like this. We will announce the winner when this goes to press next Monday morning (11/25/13) so you have to make a choice before then. The water mark (marti stone photography will be removed of course) and a few other blemishes can be removed. My hair is a mess!

So we would love to hear from you either in the comments section of the blog, where we share on facebook or by emailing the global headquarters at captains@schoonermaryday.com. Just tell us which number you like best and we will take it from there. Thanks so much for your time and highly valued opinion.

A friend of a friend snapped this image of Mary Day passing by the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse during a recent lighthouse tour. The light in the sails is particularly pleasing to me eyes. The creation of “Oceanus” synthetic canvas by Nat Wilson and North Sails has had a dramatic effect on how the windjammer fleet is portrayed. These sails are not only lighter, stronger and more powerful they have created a new way of imaging Maine windjammers. “In the old days” light didn’t filter through cotton canvas quite the same way. I know the magic of digital imaging has changed the way we portray reality but just the same, as our imaging guru Jim Dugan would point out, light can make a huge difference in any image. Backlighting sails didn’t exist until 20 or so years ago. And now that they are here we have a whole new range of imaging possibilities. How cool is that? So there you have it. The law of unintended consequences, the law of unforeseen collateral damage so to speak, is proven out by the friend of a friend. Thanks Nat. Thanks North Sails. Thanks Sheri. And thanks to her friend whose name we don’t know but whose eye we surely do appreciate.

Saddleback Ledge Light as seen from the schooner Mary Day during a recent windjammer lighthouse tour in Maine.

Good morning everyone. I am back ashore for the winter. The schooner is under wraps (more on that later). Autumn is descending on the Camden Hills in all its glory. And now I have a few moments to sift through my laptop folder titled “Unedited Images”. Most of it is junk but the memories stirred of one of the best summers of my life will keep me warm all winter.

Pictured above is the present day Saddleback Ledge Light built in 1839 and automated in 1954. At the outer edge of Isle Au Haut Bay in eastern Penobscot Bay this rock and its lighthouse have always captured my imagination. How miserable a place to be stationed and at the same time how awesome and beautiful it must have been to live and work there. Imagine the energy of the entire North Atlantic knocking on the door in a southeasterly gale. Imagine a family of nine living in such cramped quarters. And you thought the schooner cabins were a little tight? The image below shows the vastly expanded living quarters added on to Saddelback Ledge Light at a later date.